The Complete Cooper Collection (All 97 Stories)

by Bernico, Bill

  Elliott glanced at his answering machine and noticed the red light blinking. “Who called?” he said.

  “Did someone call?” I said.

  Elliott pointed at the blinking light. “Uh, yeah. Didn’t you notice?” he said. He took a closer look at the readout. “Three messages? Why didn’t one of you pick up the phone?”

  “Uh, I’d better head out,” Dean said. “I’ll see you later, Clay.”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” I said. “You rode here with me.”

  “All right,” Elliott said. “What’s going on here with you two?”

  “Lieutenant Anderson called earlier and asked for our help,” I said. “Dean and I went with him on a murder investigation.”

  “What about our investigations?” Elliott said. “Don’t they count for anything?”

  “Sure,” I said. “We were going to return those calls when we got back, but you came in before we had a chance to.”

  Elliott sighed and closed his eyes. He silently counted to ten, moving his lips as he did. When he opened his eyes again, he didn’t say a word. He just picked up the phone and dialed the first number on the history screen. He got a recording, made a note of the caller and dialed the second number.

  “Elliott,” Gloria’s voice said. “I’ll be a little later than I figured. The doc has to pull one of my molars. It’s impacted, I guess. I’ll see you later.”

  Elliott hung up and dialed the third number. “Anderson,” the voice on the other end said.

  “Eric?” Elliott said into the phone.

  “Elliott,” Eric said. “Thanks for returning my call. Is Clay still there?”

  Elliott said, “Sure,” and handed the phone to me.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Eric said. “Our boy has struck again. Is Dean still there with you?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Can I pick you two up on my way to it?” Eric said.

  “We’ll be waiting in the parking lot,” I said, and hung up. I looked at Elliott. He was staring at me with a look I’d never seen before.

  “What?” I said.

  “What’s going on here,” Elliott said.

  “I’ll fill you in later,” I said. “Eric is swinging by here in a few minutes to pick Dean and me up. It’s a long story. Looks like a serial killer, though.”

  Elliott’s face softened when he realized that Dean and I hadn’t just abandoned the office duties to goof off. “Go ahead,” Elliott said. “We’ll talk later.”

  Dean and I hurried downstairs to the parking lot just as Eric pulled up in his cruiser.

  “Get in,” Eric said. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”

  Dean and I climbed in as Eric sped away, lights and siren cutting through the traffic. “This guy has really stepped up his game,” Eric said. “They just found another body on Allesandro Street where it dead ends at the Los Angeles River. Either he’s getting impatient and needs to finish some sort of goal, or he’s gone completely insane and he’s out of control.”

  As Eric headed toward the scene of the most recent murder, I flipped open the glove box door and withdrew a fold map of the Los Angeles area. I turned to Eric. “Do you have a black felt-tipped pen in here somewhere?”

  “Should be one in the glove box,” Eric said. “Probably down beneath all that other stuff.”

  I shoved aside a pack of tissue, the car’s registration and owner’s manual and found the black marker. “All right if I mark up this map?” I said.

  “Sure, go ahead,” Eric said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  I drew a small black circle near the corner of Hollywood and Highland, the sight of one of the murders. I drew another small circle directly below the hills that houses the Hollywood sign. My third small circle identified the area where Patrick Kilgallen’s body was found near Mariposa and Santa Monica. I made on last small black circle at the end of Allesandro Street, where it met the L.A. River; the murder scene that we were headed to now. I turned to Eric. “Pull over for a second, Eric. This is important.”

  Eric pulled to the curb and turned to me. “What do you have, Clay?” he said.

  I turned the map toward Eric. Dean leaned over the back seat to have a look himself. “On that wall map back in your office,” I said. “You only had the four magnet buttons noting the murder scenes. Do you remember circling the entire area to emphasize the radius of this guy’s kill zone?”

  “Yeah,” Eric said. “What about it?”

  “It didn’t dawn on me then,” I said, “because the only pattern those magnets made looked like a lop-sided box in a circle, remember?”

  Eric nodded but said nothing.

  I took the black marker pen and circled the same approximate area on this map, circling five murder locations this time. “Now what does it look like?” I said, holding the map up in front of me.

  Dean traced the circle with his finger. “If you’d connect the bottom three locations, it would look like one of those smiley faces you see everywhere.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “And what’s missing from this smiley face?”

  Eric pointed to an area between two of the black circles at the bottom. “There should be another dot right about here,” he said, pointing to a residential area just west of the Silver Lake Reservoir. I made a small mark on the map and connected the bottom four locations. Now it looked exactly like a smiley face. “Are you thinking that this guy is planning another murder in that last area?”

  “It’s the only thing that makes any sense,” I said. “Listen, Eric, can you get me the exact GPS coordinates of all five murder locations?”

  “I think I can,” Eric said. “It might take me ten or fifteen minutes. We’re less than a mile from the fifth murder scene. When we get there, I’ll get those coordinates for you. Where are you going with this, Clay?”

  “If this guy’s got a screw loose, he might also be pretty sharp in other areas, like mapping coordinates. And if my guess is right, an overlay of a smiley face on top of a map with the exact coordinates of each murder scene will reveal a precise pattern. And I’m guessing that the mouth of the smiley face will intersect with the exact location of his next murder. Don’t you see? The victims are totally random. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s the locations that are pre-planned.”

  Dean tapped me on the shoulder. “Remember when we were walking home from the bar and we saw that billboard with the smiley face on it?” he said. “One of us remarked about it and wondered who benefited from a sign like that. It didn’t seem to be selling anything so how could someone make any money by putting it there?”

  “I do remember that billboard,” I said. “Are you thinking there’s some kind of connection between it and the murders?”

  “That would be too easy,” Dean said. “But what if that sign was the catalyst that got our guy started killing in the first place?”

  “Can we find out if there are any other billboards just like that one anyplace else in town?” I said.

  “Shouldn’t be too difficult,” Dean said. “The name of the advertising agency will be on that billboard and we can give them a call.”

  I turned to Eric. “Can you send a patrol car over to my house?” I said. “Just down the block, between my house and the bar on the corner, there’s a billboard with a big, yellow smiley face on it. Just have the officer take a closer look at it and get the name of the advertising company who put it up. They can tell us if there are any more like it and who put that one up.”

  Eric picked up the mic and called the dispatcher. He told her to send a car to that area and get the information from the bottom of the billboard and radio back with the answer. He returned the mic to the holder on the dash just as we pulled up to the fifth murder scene. Eric killed the engine and got out to examine the fifth victim and its surroundings.

  Eric started to walk toward the body when I grabbed his arm. “Eric,” I said. “This guy will be dead for a long time, but we still migh
t be able to prevent a sixth murder if I can get those coordinates.”

  “I almost forgot,” Eric said. “I guess I’m a little preoccupied.” He grabbed his lapel mic and called the dispatcher again. He instructed her to get on her computer and punch in the addresses of the five murder locations and radio him back with the GPS coordinates. She told him she’d call him back in a few minutes.

  Eric went through the same procedures with this murder scene that he’d done with the first four, asking his questions and delegating assignments. When the coroner’s wagon pulled up a few minutes later Eric could finally relax a bit. He let out a deep breath and looked at me.

  “I wonder what’s keeping that dispatcher with my coordinates,” he said. The words were no sooner out of his mouth than his radio squawked. It was the dispatcher.

  “Do you have your pencil handy,” she said over the radio.

  “Go ahead,” Eric told her.

  Eric wrote down the five sets of numbers, right down to the latitudes, longitudes, and minutes of degree for each. He thanked her and signed off, handing the sets of numbers to me.

  I made newer marks on the map, this time basing them on the GPS coordinates Eric had just gotten. Once all five dots had been marked, I drew a perfect arc, connecting the bottom three areas. As it turned out, the two locations furthest left were spaced exactly half the distance that the second and fourth locations were. That could only mean that the third dot of the pattern, and the sixth murder location had to be exactly halfway between dots two and four. Once I had those coordinates I could pinpoint where the killer would strike next. We just didn’t know when.

  I turned to Eric. “Can your men handle things from here?” I said. “We really need to get moving on this thing, right now.”

  Lieutenant Anderson found Sergeant Mark Rydell talking with Andy Reynolds, the county medical examiner. “Sergeant,” Eric said, “take over here. I need to be someplace else right away.”

  “Yes, sir,” Rydell said.

  Eric was about to walk back to his car when he turned back to Sergeant Rydell. “Sergeant,” he said, “do you still have that GPS unit in your patrol car?”

  “Yes, sir,” the sergeant said. “Would you like me to get it?”

  “Please,” Eric said. “I’ll return it when I’m finished with it a little later today.”

  The three of us got back into Eric’s cruiser and headed west toward the Silver Lake Reservoir, fully expecting to find the possible sixth murder location. I hoped we would get there in time to prevent any other senseless deaths at the hands of this maniac. We pulled up to the corner of Landa and Castle Streets and looked around us. This was a totally residential area. If anyone was going to get killed here, it would have to be in one of their homes, or right here on the street.

  Eric turned to me. “Show me the exact spot where those coordinates should intersect,” he said, handing me Sergeant Rydell’s GPS unit.

  I switched it on and punched in the coordinates from the paper Eric had given me earlier. The display on the screen directed me nearly thirty feet to the east and twelve feet to the north. I stopped and pointed to the ground at my feet. “If this guy is using exact coordinates,” I said. “This is where he’ll strike his next victim down.”

  Eric and Dean joined me on the exact location. We looked at our surroundings. We were standing on the grassy area between the street and the sidewalk, somewhere between two houses. Eric turned to me. “We’d better find cover nearby in case he shows up soon,” he said.

  “Do you think we should alert the residents in this immediate area?” Dean said.

  “Let’s hold off on that for now,” Eric said. “Don’t want to spook anyone into doing something they might not otherwise. That might drive someone directly into the killer’s path. Let’s just wait a while and see if he shows.”

  “You don’t think he’s going to come around with us here, do you?” I said.

  “We won’t be in plain sight,” Eric said, and then remembered that I had recently purchased some pretty cool surveillance toys. “Clay, do you still have that mini helicopter with the video camera attached to it?”

  I immediately smiled. “I see where you’re going with this,” I said. “Yeah, it’s still in Elliott’s van, but that’s parked behind our building.”

  Eric turned to Dean. “How’d you like to stay here and keep an eye out for our boy?” he said. “I’m going to drive Clay back to Hollywood to get the surveillance van. I think we can use that spy copter to our advantage on this one.”

  Dean nodded. “Sure, go on,” he said. “I’ll stay out of sight and let you know if anything happens. You two keep your cell phones on.”

  On our way back to the parking lot behind our building Eric and I got a chance to talk about surveillance methods. He asked out the new equipment Elliott had bought for a factory surveillance job.

  “Let me give Elliott a quick call,” I said. “I want to make sure he doesn’t take off in his van before we get back.”

  I called the office and Elliott answered. “Cooper Investigations, Elliott speaking.”

  “Elliott,” I said. “Were you planning on using the van soon?” I said.

  “No,” Elliott said, “why?”

  “I’m headed back to the office with Eric,” I said. “He has an idea that might help us nab a killer, but it involves the mini helicopter and the monitor in the van. Can I borrow the rig for a while? I’ll leave you my car in case you have to leave.”

  “Yeah,” Elliott said. “I guess that would work. When are you coming over?”

  “We’re over on Western Avenue now,” I said. “We should be there in just a few minutes.”

  “See you then,” Elliott said, and hung up.

  Five minutes later Eric and I pulled into the parking lot to find Elliott standing next to his van, dangling the keys between his fingers. I slid out of Eric’s cruiser and walked over to where Elliott was standing. “You didn’t have to come all the way down here,” I said. “I’d have come up for the keys.”

  “Dad,” Elliott said, “Do you even know how to operate the copter and aim the camera?”

  I looked at Eric and then back at Elliott. “You’ve got a point there,” I said. “So what are you saying, that I can’t borrow it?”

  “Not at all,” Elliott said. “But how about if we team up on this? You drive the van and I’ll operate the copter. Either way it takes two people to do it up right, and I don’t think Eric knows any more about operating the copter than you do.” I turned to Eric. “Nothing personal, you understand, but I’ve got a lot of money invested in this new copter and it would be pretty awkward for me to have to ask you to pay for it if you crashed it. You understand.”

  “New copter?” I said. “What happened to the old one?”

  “I still have it,” Elliott said. “I just bought another one with more bells and whistles on it. This new one does a whole lot more than the first one.”

  “Like what?” I said.

  “This new model has the option to use GPS coordinates to find a particular location,” Elliott said. “And once it find the location, it can hover unattended for as long as the battery holds out, which is around eight hours.”

  I turned to Eric. “Do you still have the coordinates of the supposed sixth murder location on you?” I said.

  “No,” Eric said. “You have it. I think you stuck it in your shirt pocket.”

  I plucked the slip of paper from my pocket. “Got it,” I said to Eric. “Why don’t you head back over and find Dean? Elliott and I will be right behind you. He wants to test the automatic coordinate location device on the new copter. It’ll probably be there hovering overhead by the time you get back. We won’t be far behind, either.”

  Eric waved and nodded before he pulled out of the parking lot and drove away. Elliott tossed me the keys to his van and slid in beside me. He was already making his way into the back compartment of the van by the time I pulled out onto the boulevard. He slid back into the front seat
, the new mini copter in his lap. He had a wide smile on his face as he held his new toy.

  “So,” Elliott said. “You want to fill me in on what you and Eric and Dean are working on before we get there?”

  I told him about the first five murders and how they looked when pinpointed on a map. I explained how the location we were heading toward right now fit precisely into the pattern on the map, right down to the exact GPS coordinates.

  “The killer, whoever he is,” Elliott said, “doesn’t seem too bright. He has to know that any cop keeping track of the killings on a map is going to see a pattern.”

  “I thought of that,” I said, “and I think he wants them to see the pattern. In fact, on the way home from the bar the other night, Dean and I spotted a billboard with a big yellow smiley face on it. We checked with the advertising company that owns the billboard and it’s the only one like it in the entire area.”

  “Did you find out who rented that billboard and had the smiley face put on it?” Elliott said.

  “We’re still waiting for that last bit of information,” I said. “There could be a connection to the killer, or it could just be the thing that inspired the killer. We’ll know soon.”

  As we got closer to the Silver Lake neighborhood where Dean was waiting, Elliott asked me to pull over to the curb so he could launch the spy copter. I handed him the slip of paper with the coordinates on it and he entered them into the copter’s controller and then powered it up. The four bladed rotated really fast before he held his hand out the window and launched the aircraft. He stuck his head out the window and watched as it cleared the power lines and rose to a hundred feet before leveling off.

  “Let’s go,” Elliott said.

  I pulled back out into traffic and took the shortest route back to the Silver Lake neighborhood. Sure enough, by the time we parked the van and got out, the copter was hovering overhead, almost out of sight. If you weren’t looking for it and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d never notice it. The electric motor purred almost silently while the video camera zoomed in on the exact location Elliott had entered.